Knitting element of knitting machinery



A9111 10, 1945- G. l.. BoLDl-:N ET'AL KNITTING ELEMENTS 0F KNITTINGMACHINERY Filed Feb. 3. 1944 Inventors' BoLDE/v "Bywl PEEL l torneysneedle in mure 1.

Patented Apr. l0, 1945 AUNITED ySTATES PATENT ortica KNITTING ELEMENT FKNITTING l MACHINERY George Lennard Bolden, Painswiok, and Robert Peel,Blakeweli Mead, Painswiok, England, assignors to F. N. F. Limited,Gloucester, England, a British company Application February 3,1944,'serin1 No. 520,948 In Greet Britain Maren so, 194s 1 Claim. (Cl.66-120) In United States Patent No. l2,229,929 tubular machineknittingneedles are described in which the needle hook is formed as an extensionof a portion of the wall of the tubular shank. Thus, the materialavailable for the hook is limited by the thickness of the wall and maybe insufficient for the best results in the case of tine gauge needles.It has, therefore, been proposed to make the portion of the wall atwhich the hook emerges thicker than the other portions of the tube walland one way in which this may be done, according to United' StatesPatent No. 2,237,480, is to braze or solder a strip along one side ofthe tube, the hook being formed on the strip rather than on the tubeitself. An aim of the present invention, however, is to provide a methodof form- .ing an adequate hook at the end of the tubular shank, even inthe finest sizes, without the neces.

sity for any special tubing pr for any brazzingl or like rocess.

'Ihe y, oresaid aim is achieved, according to the invention. by swagingthe whole of one end j -of a tube to form the needle hook. Accordingly,the mainbody of the hook is oftubular rather4 than solid crosssection,although in the swaging. operation the bore of the tube in relation toits wall thickness is very greatly reduced.

In order that the invention may be clearlylunderstood and readilycarried into struction in accordance therewith will now be described.byV way of example, with reference to v the accompanying drawing, inwhich:

Figure lisa sectional elevation of si machine knitting needle with anassociated tongue,

Figures 2 to 5 are vsections respectively on the lines II-II, III-III,IV-IV and V'V in Figure 1, and

-Figure 6 is a plan of the forward part of the from a tube, the crossasto provide the needle tonguef2. The whole o! one endof the tube isswaged and bent to form the `needle hook which comprises al straight'portion' 3 and the hook eect, one con:

' In this moven'ienty the needle passes through the proper l. Beingformed 'from a tube, the hook.

has a narrow central passages. 'A lateral opening 6 is formed in theside of the tube to permit the tongue 2 to slide to-and-tro relativelyto the needle between. position in which the tip 1 of thetongue'isconcealed within the needle shankrand the position shown in Figure 1where the tip I overlaps the needle hook. f

In the manufacture of the needle, the swaged pin diesels te @munito thehwk m pr@ the hook proper 4 is formed at the end of the pin.

When the invention is applied to a warp knitting machine, such needles,arranged parallel to each other, are secured at their tail ends bymoulding into a block of lead or synthetic resin, and a row of suchblocks is secured in' the well known fashion along a needle bar which ismoved toandtro by the mechanism of the knitting machine. The backwardlyproiecting ends l on the tongues are similarly mounted in blocks securedalong a tongue bar which is also moved to-and-fro in timed relationshipwith the needle bar. Accordingly. in the to-and-iro movements of theneedles and tongues. each tongue slides in the tubular shank i of its.respective needle. and the action is such that, after a loop oi yarnhasbeen drawn by the needle hook, the needle advances while the tongue 2recedes to the position in which its tip 'I lies Ibehind the opening 0.

loop of yarn which travels along the sloping edges of the opening 6to apoint such that the'tongue can pass through the. loop of yarn when(y thetongue again moves forward with respect to .the needle. Then the looplof yarn can be' cast ott while the tip I or the tongue is covering theneedle hook and the latter is drawing a new loop.

Although the invention is particularly suitable for warpknittingmachines, .it may also be applied to other forms of knitting machines.Thus, the needles may be separately mounted in tricks and formed withbutts to be acted upon bycams.

The associated tongues would also be furnished with the invention for awarp knitting machine,

(that is a needle for a row containing 28 needles t0 theinchl'the-dimension A (Figure 1) is 0.018 inch. the dimension B is 0.020inch and the dimension c 1510.008 inch. The length of the nee' die is1.844-inches. The needle may be made of carbon steel, in which case theusual heat treatment for such material is necessary. The, associatedtongue may be made of stainless steel or the metal known asvK Monel orother suitable material such as phosphor bronze. Alternatively,

- die and the adjacent faces of the two halves of the die are formed tothe shape of a cylinder oi the cross-section of the required pin. The

end of the tube is fed into a. flared end of this cylinder and, as itapproaches the other end of the cylinder, undergoes a rapid hammeringaction due to the dies which are acted on by hammer members having theirouter ends projecting respectively from the ends of the slot so thatthey sweep past a series of pairs of diametrically opposed rollers in astationary cage. The hammer members are simultaneously driven inwards(against the action of centrifugal force) sharply by each pair ofrollers so that the tube is reduced in diameter, while its wallthickness is increased, by a series o blows at points distributed aroundits axis. The swaging may be effected in stages with intermediateannealing. After the hook has been bent to shape, the needle maybehardened, tempered, ground and polished by such processes'as are Wellknown in connection with the manufacture of machine knitting needles.

We claim:

A machine knitting needle comprising a tubular shank. the Whole of oneend of which is swaged to form afpin, the said pin being formed so thatit is offset to one side of the shank and bent to the shape of a hook,andthe said shank being further formed with an opening, on the sidethereof remote from the aforesaid side, for the passage vof a tonguewhich alternately overlaps the needle hook and is withdrawn into theshank.

GEORGE LENNARD BOLDEN. ROBERT PEEL.

